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Dream Wheels
Champion bull-rider Joe Willie Wolfchild is poised to win the most sought after title in rodeo when a devastating accident at the National Finals leaves his body and ambitions in tatters. Unsure of what else to do, he retires to the panoramic family ranch, Wolfcreek, to mend. Claire Hartley and her fifteen-year-old son Aiden have nearly been torn apart by abusive boyfriends and an unjust world when a friend sends them to the Wolfchild ranch. Thrown together by terrible circumstance, it appears Aiden and Joe Willie have more in common than their childhoods would suggest. After a rocky start, they strike a Aiden will help Joe Willie repair his ’34 Ford V8 pickup if the former champion teaches the city kid how to ride a bull. As Wagamese reveals their story, he rewrites the history of the American cowboy. In taut, muscular prose, Wagamese explores how independence, self-determination, and a return to cultural tradition can heal body, mind, and community.
418 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
About the author
Richard Wagamese
25 books1,620 followersRichard Wagamese was one of Canada's foremost Native authors and storytellers. He worked as a professional writer since 1979. He was a newspaper columnist and reporter, radio and television broadcaster and producer, documentary producer and the author of twelve titles from major Canadian publishers.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 146 reviews
September 6, 2022
This is one of those novels that I couldn’t stop reading, but didn’t want to end. This is the third novel by Richard Wagamese that I’ve read and with each, I have been taken by his remarkable storytelling. His beautiful writing takes you exactly where the characters are - in their physical presence and in their heads and hearts. Two stories at first, narrated together with paragraphs of one, then the other. One of a broken man, a bull rider from a family connected by love and tradition, the other a broken teenage boy, his only family, a single loving mom, herself broken by her past and circumstances. Both are separately living through their own darkness, pent up in their prison, one in actuality, and one enduring physical and emotional injury. I anxiously waited for the time that their stories, their lives would converge . The story then becomes one, one of healing together through self awareness, through giving of themselves with love and support of family and tradition. I felt as if I knew every one of the characters, as Wagamese wonderfully allows his readers that intimacy to know them. It was hard to leave them. I’ve also read a book of his meditations and with each book I read , I’m more eager to get to the rest of them. But I’m going slowly, since Wagamese as passed and I’ll be sad when there are no more of his books to read. I don’t often reread books , but I may have to make exceptions when I get to that point.
September 3, 2023
Why am I giving this book four stars?
Its message is important. It strikes home with me. Who we are is determined by the choices we make. Life punches all of us. How we respond to these punches determines who we are. Self-understanding comes through asking ourselves WHY we have made these choices. I like this message. I think it is an important message.
Secondly, the author vividly draws widely disparate experiences, places and milieux. Life in jail, physical and psychological abuse in a couple’s relationship, landscape out west in the US, overcoming a physical injury, the art, thrill and excitement of rodeo riding, Native American traditions and beliefs are all intimately experienced. Good relationships and shallow relationships are equally well described. I like the mix of the good and the bad. The book kept my attention from start to finish.
The title is not insignificant. It has a message too. It captures the essence of the story.
The writing style has given me trouble. We are told that the youth of today have a short attention span. In the telling of the tale, we rapidly hop from character to character and subject to subject. Sometimes, there’s only a paragraph or two before there is another hop. No warning is given. Until a name is spoken, you don’t know where you are or who is being talked about! I find this disconcerting. The book is perhaps intended to appeal to the young with short attention spans. Perhaps, but this Is not to my taste. The rapid jumps stop as the story reaches its conclusion. At the end, all the characters meet up at the same place. Now the telling is easier to follow!
The audiobook is very well read by Tom Stechschulte. He captures the essence of each character. Nor does he overdramatize. Four stars for the narration.
The author died in 2017. He was a mere sixty-two! What a terrible shame!
Thank you, Carmel, for recommending this book to me!
Its message is important. It strikes home with me. Who we are is determined by the choices we make. Life punches all of us. How we respond to these punches determines who we are. Self-understanding comes through asking ourselves WHY we have made these choices. I like this message. I think it is an important message.
Secondly, the author vividly draws widely disparate experiences, places and milieux. Life in jail, physical and psychological abuse in a couple’s relationship, landscape out west in the US, overcoming a physical injury, the art, thrill and excitement of rodeo riding, Native American traditions and beliefs are all intimately experienced. Good relationships and shallow relationships are equally well described. I like the mix of the good and the bad. The book kept my attention from start to finish.
The title is not insignificant. It has a message too. It captures the essence of the story.
The writing style has given me trouble. We are told that the youth of today have a short attention span. In the telling of the tale, we rapidly hop from character to character and subject to subject. Sometimes, there’s only a paragraph or two before there is another hop. No warning is given. Until a name is spoken, you don’t know where you are or who is being talked about! I find this disconcerting. The book is perhaps intended to appeal to the young with short attention spans. Perhaps, but this Is not to my taste. The rapid jumps stop as the story reaches its conclusion. At the end, all the characters meet up at the same place. Now the telling is easier to follow!
The audiobook is very well read by Tom Stechschulte. He captures the essence of each character. Nor does he overdramatize. Four stars for the narration.
The author died in 2017. He was a mere sixty-two! What a terrible shame!
Thank you, Carmel, for recommending this book to me!
July 1, 2022
This might be my favorite Wagamese so far. Some books fly by in the fast lane, other weave in and out of traffic, but Dream Wheels is the story equivalent of a ride in an Amish buggy. It takes its time, it drenches you in scenery, and it gives you a microscopic view of every blade of grass when life events bring you to a screeching halt, forcing you to reassess.
There is a minimal and focused story here, and an arc, but the real beauty of this book is Wagamese' writing.
"He watched her gather herself. It was a familiar thing and he'd always been impressed by it. It started somewhere at the back of her eyes, a movement but not really, more like energy pulling itself together like a fist, positioning itself for maximum release."
"Trust. They wouldn't have called it that. The world gives outsized names to simple things and, for Joe Willie and Lionel, trust was too big a loop to throw over the horns of what they felt. It was an elbows-on-the-fence-rail kind of thing, all leaned back and casual, existing without definition or borders, a line of certainty that ran from the edges of what they did to the uncertainty of the risks they took."
These characters quietly inhabited the pages, slowly coming into focus, circling each other like wary bears. A rodeo champion with a life-changing injury, a mother and son living harsh realities they need to move past, an assortment of family and concerned others bringing quiet support and opportunities to the splintered lives; Wagamese is a master of understated eloquence when it comes to dialogue and description. He conveys an entire world with a few sentences. He gently leads you into the spiritual caverns that hold our pain and redemption.
"What bothered her more was women with elastic characters, the ones who had never found a moral ground to stand on, never found a principled territory to defend and consequently never found a woman to be."
I'm not a cowboy and I know nothing about riding bulls. But through his prose, I rode those bulls along with Aiden and Joe Willie. I felt that thumping, I smelled that fear and sweat. Because of this kind of writing:
"He could feel the openness work against his insides. As his eyes reached farther down the length of the valley he felt smaller and larger at the same time. As the car ate up the distance, he felt less like he was moving through it as he was moving through it, becoming a part of the sage and pasture and draw of the severe slope of the valley..."
I did not move through this story, I became part of it, "larger and smaller at the same time". That's how immersive it is. Like being pulled into a universe simultaneously zeroed in and infinitely expansive.
I'm going to miss this group of people.
There is a minimal and focused story here, and an arc, but the real beauty of this book is Wagamese' writing.
"He watched her gather herself. It was a familiar thing and he'd always been impressed by it. It started somewhere at the back of her eyes, a movement but not really, more like energy pulling itself together like a fist, positioning itself for maximum release."
"Trust. They wouldn't have called it that. The world gives outsized names to simple things and, for Joe Willie and Lionel, trust was too big a loop to throw over the horns of what they felt. It was an elbows-on-the-fence-rail kind of thing, all leaned back and casual, existing without definition or borders, a line of certainty that ran from the edges of what they did to the uncertainty of the risks they took."
These characters quietly inhabited the pages, slowly coming into focus, circling each other like wary bears. A rodeo champion with a life-changing injury, a mother and son living harsh realities they need to move past, an assortment of family and concerned others bringing quiet support and opportunities to the splintered lives; Wagamese is a master of understated eloquence when it comes to dialogue and description. He conveys an entire world with a few sentences. He gently leads you into the spiritual caverns that hold our pain and redemption.
"What bothered her more was women with elastic characters, the ones who had never found a moral ground to stand on, never found a principled territory to defend and consequently never found a woman to be."
I'm not a cowboy and I know nothing about riding bulls. But through his prose, I rode those bulls along with Aiden and Joe Willie. I felt that thumping, I smelled that fear and sweat. Because of this kind of writing:
"He could feel the openness work against his insides. As his eyes reached farther down the length of the valley he felt smaller and larger at the same time. As the car ate up the distance, he felt less like he was moving through it as he was moving through it, becoming a part of the sage and pasture and draw of the severe slope of the valley..."
I did not move through this story, I became part of it, "larger and smaller at the same time". That's how immersive it is. Like being pulled into a universe simultaneously zeroed in and infinitely expansive.
I'm going to miss this group of people.
March 24, 2024
Mar 23, 1030am ~~ Review asap.
Mar 24, 1040am ~~ This book took some getting used to for me. From the very beginning there is a lot of anger here, it was almost overwhelming at times and if not for my curiosity about how the different characters were to come together, I would have given up before the halfway point.
I also had to adjust to switching from one character to another within the same chapter. That is often a jolt for me: to get involved in one person's story and with the next paragraph get shifted over to another person without any warning. I kept going in the book mainly to see how and when the two main characters would intersect, because I knew they had to eventually or else nothing in the story would have made any sense.
I say two main characters, but in a way everyone in this book is a main character. There is Joe Willie Wolfchild, rodeo star who is horribly injured in the first pages. His parents. His grandparents. They are very much a main force in the story.
But then we also have Claire and her teenage son Aiden. Claire has lived through a string of men hoping one would be the knight in shining armor to fix her life. Current man Eric turns out to be the same as all the rest, only more so. The parts of the story featuring Claire were traumatic to read even for a woman like myself who has never suffered physical abuse, so be warned!
Claire's teenage son Aiden is coping the only way he knows how: by shutting down and beginning to explore the world of drugs and crime. He thinks he is tough, but is he tough enough to discover real life and not merely escape from it?
The author did a very good job of allowing the reader inside each character's mind, even into the mind of See Four the bull in the earliest pages. I never did get completely adapted to flipping back and forth from person to person, but I enjoyed the time spent with each character. Eventually I guessed broadly how it would all end up and I was pretty much correct. But when Wagamese tied all the threads of his story together, he was able to move me to unexpected tears.
It is an angry, violent book, but the whole point was to see how the characters handled the traumas that had taken control of their lives. Would they be defeated or would they find the courage to stand up and dare to change their destinies?
Mar 24, 1040am ~~ This book took some getting used to for me. From the very beginning there is a lot of anger here, it was almost overwhelming at times and if not for my curiosity about how the different characters were to come together, I would have given up before the halfway point.
I also had to adjust to switching from one character to another within the same chapter. That is often a jolt for me: to get involved in one person's story and with the next paragraph get shifted over to another person without any warning. I kept going in the book mainly to see how and when the two main characters would intersect, because I knew they had to eventually or else nothing in the story would have made any sense.
I say two main characters, but in a way everyone in this book is a main character. There is Joe Willie Wolfchild, rodeo star who is horribly injured in the first pages. His parents. His grandparents. They are very much a main force in the story.
But then we also have Claire and her teenage son Aiden. Claire has lived through a string of men hoping one would be the knight in shining armor to fix her life. Current man Eric turns out to be the same as all the rest, only more so. The parts of the story featuring Claire were traumatic to read even for a woman like myself who has never suffered physical abuse, so be warned!
Claire's teenage son Aiden is coping the only way he knows how: by shutting down and beginning to explore the world of drugs and crime. He thinks he is tough, but is he tough enough to discover real life and not merely escape from it?
The author did a very good job of allowing the reader inside each character's mind, even into the mind of See Four the bull in the earliest pages. I never did get completely adapted to flipping back and forth from person to person, but I enjoyed the time spent with each character. Eventually I guessed broadly how it would all end up and I was pretty much correct. But when Wagamese tied all the threads of his story together, he was able to move me to unexpected tears.
It is an angry, violent book, but the whole point was to see how the characters handled the traumas that had taken control of their lives. Would they be defeated or would they find the courage to stand up and dare to change their destinies?
April 3, 2024
Wagamese's skill, clear understanding and heart glow in the storytelling of Joe Willie Wolfchild and Aiden, two men galaxies apart in experience, yet twin stars in an embattled dust-choked rodeo arena that can mean glory or death. There is a rightness to the ancient dance of humans and nature as Wagamese writes, respect for skills and - most welcome - an abiding belief in the power and dignity of females. For that alone, I can praise Wagamese mightily. The prose is heart grabbing. The sounds and silent fury of the bull pen before a ride that will define everyone in the stall: See Four, rolling eyes upward to view the beast on his back. A father with a hand on his son's chest as the seconds to launch tick by. A mother bear, grieved and starving, who stands to sniff the scent of food, and the miasma of power calling to power. The dust of the arena duelling the dust of the barn where the ranch hands yank on ropes to make the mechanical bull spin and buck. Like life: unforgiving, unpredictable, unavoidable. The menfolk - Lionel who believes trucks carry the story of their lives - Aiden who must unclench his heart while he clenches his teeth and Birch and Joe Willie in between, the dreams and hopes of a father for a son. Each character is richly painted on the dance card of the still living. In the background, there is Iron Mountain and the treacherous, winding uphill climb. Waiting in the garage, a battered, cigarette-scarred, block broke truck with faded paint, the ghosts of country songs, the bench seat molded by those who came before. A dreamscape, unforgettable.
April 10, 2017
When I heard of Richard's passing last month, I surprised myself at how hard it hit me. I'd been lucky enough to meet him a couple times, most recently last summer, and he is without a doubt one of my favourite authors. The loss of him in the world is so sad but his spirit and his books are immortal. On that day, Mar 11th, I knew exactly where on my bookshelves his books were and I picked Dream Wheels as the one book of his that I own but hadn't read yet. I read it slowly, savouring the words. It's one of his earlier novels and has themes and scenes that show up again in his later writing, like the medicine walk and of family stories told around a fire being like embers that burn through generations. Dream Wheels is the story of Joe Willie, a rodeo star who suffers a career ending injury, and of Aiden, coming out of 2 yrs at juvie and needing a fresh start. At a ranch in the Chilcotin region of British Columbia (where Wagamese lived), these two young men heal. "To his eyes, used to the dullness of concrete and steel, it was a feast, and Aiden sat straighter, watching it unroll before them. He could feel the openness work against his insides. As his eyes reached farther down the length of the valley, he felt smaller and larger at the same time. He felt less like he was moving through it as he was moving with it, becoming part of the sage and pasture and draw and the severe slope of the valley, and the feeling crested and broke against his ribs and he exhaled long and slow". Beautiful writing. A natural storyteller.
December 28, 2022
Faith is what we earn when we have enough courage to face what’s in front of us.
It’s been awhile since I read and loved a novel so blatantly about redemption. I did not expect to find that in a story so deeply rooted in the cowboy life of the American west, but from the opening lines, “The Old Ones say that fate has a smell, a feel, a presence, a tactile heft in the air. Animals know it. It’s what brings hunter and prey together” and a prologue told from the perspective of a rodeo bull, I knew I had found something special.
Wagamese weaves together the stories of people (a rodeo star and a mother and son) all broken by circumstances and by choices with unflinching honesty and detail. He strikes a balance between brutality and hope from the start.
She looked at him. She could feel his defiance. It radiated outward from the dark pools of his eyes and the solid plant of his feet. There was nothing of what she remembers of her son in him now. He’s moved beyond it somehow and she’s missed the passing.
You didn’t learn to cowboy by being graceful but you learned to be a man that way. First thing you had to learn in order to cowboy was how to fall. First thing you had to learn to be a man was how to stand up, dust yourself off and move on. The grace is in the dusting off.
Recently I’ve found that constantly shifting perspectives have prevented me from truly engaging with characters, but this author handles the transitions and details of character and setting so deftly that I found the constant movement compelled me more deeply into the rich world of his novel. There is poetry to his language and to the native Ojibwe and Sioux wisdom this novel imparts throughout.
That’s what everyone thinks, son. That it’s too late now. But we’re all tribal people. Every last one of us living and breathing right now started as the same kind of people. People who lived in community and together on the land. All the things we call Indian were the same for everyone at one time.
A true 5-star read for me - I never wanted to put it down and I never wanted it to end.
Because of that it is a difficult path and only the most courageous and purest of heart have the humility to walk it. It takes great strength, warrior strength, to court doubt and darkness as the cost of knowing, to wield the power of choice like a lance and probe the way forward to the fullest expression of who you are created to be.
July 17, 2026
Joe Willie Wolfchild is a famous bull rider, severely injured seconds shy of becoming World Champion Cowboy. Aiden Hartley is a mixed-race city kid who falls into gang activity and serves a two-year sentence. His Black mother, Claire, flees an abusive relationship while trying to get control of her addictions. Their storylines converge on the Wolfchild ranch in the Chilcotin region of British Columbia. This is a story of healing after physical and emotional trauma.
The opening quarter is heavy going, but I'm glad I persevered. Joe Willie and Aiden both have to overcome anger and distrust. Joe Willie is bitter and closed off in a way that feels authentic, and I felt deeply for all of the main characters, as well as the formidable Wolfchild women. The horses and the physical labor of the ranch eventually bring this diverse group together.
The Wolfchild family is Ojibwe, and First Nations spirituality runs through the story in a way that portrays healing as communal and rooted in the land. Wagamese writes with sincerity, and his prose beautifully describes the Chilcotin country. By the end it delivers something warm and hopeful without minimizing the suffering it took to get there. This book would make a great film.
The opening quarter is heavy going, but I'm glad I persevered. Joe Willie and Aiden both have to overcome anger and distrust. Joe Willie is bitter and closed off in a way that feels authentic, and I felt deeply for all of the main characters, as well as the formidable Wolfchild women. The horses and the physical labor of the ranch eventually bring this diverse group together.
The Wolfchild family is Ojibwe, and First Nations spirituality runs through the story in a way that portrays healing as communal and rooted in the land. Wagamese writes with sincerity, and his prose beautifully describes the Chilcotin country. By the end it delivers something warm and hopeful without minimizing the suffering it took to get there. This book would make a great film.
August 1, 2009
Richard's novel takes the reader into many unforgettable places: into the mind of a bull (extraordinay!), into the pain of a champion bull rider who has been badly damaged -- both physically and emotionally -- into the inner life of a single parent who finally gathers the courage to escape her abusive husband, into the psyche of her teenage son who is in danger of locking his emotions away forever, and into the warmth and wisdom of the Native family who open their ranch and their hearts to these damaged people. You will never look at rodeo or bull riders the same way again!
January 4, 2024
I’m talking about us, son. I’m talking about the stories of the lives of a people. Doesn’t have to be a nation. Can be a family or a town, a valley like this or a broken-down old truck like that old girl out there. A dream wheel is the sum total of a peoples’ story. All its dreams, all its visions, all its experiences gathered together. Looped together. Woven together in a big wheel of dreaming.
I’ve read quite a lot of Richard Wagamese and I’ve come to the conclusion that I prefer his nonfiction: Wagamese was a deep thinker, a powerful storyteller, and generous in his love for humanity and willingness to share his hard-won wisdom. I connect deeply with his wit and wisdom when he’s flat out telling me about his life and lessons learned, but I don’t connect so completely with his fictional style; and I can admit that that comes down to personal taste. Dream Wheels is basically the story of two young(ish) men: Joe Willie Wolfchild (the best rodeo cowboy on the circuit, about to win the coveted World Champion title at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas in the novel’s first pages, but a massive bull named See Four has other plans for Joe Willie) and Aiden Hartley (disaffected teenaged son of an African-American single mom, Aiden makes bad choices that seem to doom him to a life of criminality). The storyline rotates between these two men — with Joe Willie recovering from his injuries at his family’s working ranch (and being encouraged to restore the old jalopy of a truck that drove generations of his family around the rodeo circuit; a truck ironically referred to as “Dream Wheels”) — and with Aiden doing a stretch in juvenile lockup and being trained as a mechanic, there’s nothing very surprising about the plotlines eventually converging, with two bitter young men, each trapped in a kind of mental hopelessness, and eventually seeing that they each had much to teach and learn from the other. At the ranch, the Wolfchild family recognises that city slicker Aiden is a once-in-a-generation natural bull rider (because, of course), and like any great sports story, the most exciting writing comes when Aiden is training and competing. Along the way, Wagamese writes beautifully of the rugged landscape, shares deep and universal truths about humanity, and peoples his rough-and-tumble masculine story of cowboys and prison with wise female characters who remind everyone that what’s most important in life is community, connection, and tradition. All this to say: the plot and its execution didn’t wow me here, but I love Wagamese’s sentences and thought that he was a wonderful teacher; another reader might connect with this more completely.
He’d always been strong and tough, but Johanna had found a way to make him graceful. Graceful. You didn’t learn to cowboy by being graceful but you learned to be a man that way. First thing you had to learn in order to cowboy well was how to fall. First thing you had to learn to be a man was how to stand up, dust yourself off and move on. The grace was in the dusting off.
Grit and gumption and grace, being both talented and lucky: that’s what takes you to the top of the rodeo circuit, and Joe Willie was fortunate to have been born into a family that both taught and lived these virtues. On the other hand, and this made me a bit uncomfortable, Aiden's mother, Claire, provided no stability for her son; hopping from weak white man to bad white man; none of them as interested in being a father figure to Aiden as bedding his beautiful Black mother. I don’t know if I bought the scenario that put Aiden in lockup . And I don’t know if I bought how the convict and the cowboys came together But if I didn’t buy the plot, I did appreciate the lessons it was teaching:
That’s what everyone thinks, son. That it’s too late now. But we’re all tribal people. Every last one of us living and breathing right now started out as the same kind of people. People who lived in community and together on the land. All the things we call Indian were the same for everybody at one time. The reason we get so far away from each other is because we’ve learned to think we’re different. But we’re not. Take anybody and put them in the middle of something as beautiful as that alpine lake up in the pass over there and they’re going to be touched by it, feel something move inside themselves. Hear that old voice that tells them they remember. It takes time and commitment to remember how to really hear it, but anyone can do it.
Sitting by a fire and talking into the night, working our bodies to healthy exhaustion, communing with nature and recognising our places within it: these are our common heritage and the medicine that can heal individuals and society. In a nice bit of symmetry, these are exactly the lessons laid out in the nonfiction work, Challenge to Civilization that I recently read by another Indigenous writer, Blair Stonechild; confirming that if I’m having trouble buying an author’s fictional plot, I’d rather have his lessons laid out in plain language; a personal preference that’s not necessarily universal. There is much to admire and enjoy in Dream Wheels, and as it was the only book given to me for Christmas of ‘23, I am grateful for this gift and what it taught me.
November 12, 2018
This novel has a little bit different feel to it than some of his other novels that seem much more tied to Canadian First Nations and Ojibwe life. This one centers around a ranch owned by a Native rodeo family. Three generations of Wolfchild men have all been rodeo riders. The book begins with the youngest, Joe Willie, being hurt so bad in his last ride that he can never ride again. In a city nearby, a young black woman, Claire, and her son, Aiden are struggling with their lives. Claire has been abused by many men and Aiden enters a life of crime. After serving time in prison, a parole officer suggests that they both go to the Wolfchild ranch where Joe Willie, Claire, and Aiden begin the process of healing through different paths but that eventually overlap. Another good novel by Richard Wagamese.
July 29, 2013
I _loved_ this book. I would never have imagined that I'd want to read a book about jail and abuse and bull-riding. But I was immediately drawn in, and kept in, and now I want to read more by Wagamese, no matter what the subject.
It's rare for me to enjoy books that have long espository paragraphs, normally preferring books with mostly dialogue, but Wagamese has such a wonderful lyrical quality to his writing that I read them as carefully as I read the dialogue. Interestingly, many of the settings and situations of the book don't seem to lend themselves at all to lyrical writing, but Wagamese was able to make me want to continue reading even the most horrifying scenes.
It's rare for me to enjoy books that have long espository paragraphs, normally preferring books with mostly dialogue, but Wagamese has such a wonderful lyrical quality to his writing that I read them as carefully as I read the dialogue. Interestingly, many of the settings and situations of the book don't seem to lend themselves at all to lyrical writing, but Wagamese was able to make me want to continue reading even the most horrifying scenes.
May 29, 2022
I finished this book a few days ago and sometimes I just have to think about a book for a few days and let it sink in before I comment about it. First, the author, Richard Wagamese, amazing writer and what a loss to the world of writing. This is the fourth book I have read by him and my goal is to read all of them.
This is the story of two families. The first is the three generation Wolfchild family who live on a ranch, train bulls and horses for the rodeo. The second family is a woman, her 15 year old son and an abusive and controlling man. They live in the city. A terrible accident occurs at the very beginning and also a crime. It's about how these people meet and the process of healing for both.
"I have this friend of mine," he said. "He says that old time Indians used to routinely give away everything they had in orderto take on a new direction. He had an Indian word for it that I can't pronounce but it comes down to being disencumbered. According to him it freed you, allowed you to meet the world again square on, like how you got here, he said. And the act of it, the giving away of what everyone else regarded as important, returned you to the humility you were born in.
So many great quotes, so much wisdom in all of books.
This is the story of two families. The first is the three generation Wolfchild family who live on a ranch, train bulls and horses for the rodeo. The second family is a woman, her 15 year old son and an abusive and controlling man. They live in the city. A terrible accident occurs at the very beginning and also a crime. It's about how these people meet and the process of healing for both.
"I have this friend of mine," he said. "He says that old time Indians used to routinely give away everything they had in orderto take on a new direction. He had an Indian word for it that I can't pronounce but it comes down to being disencumbered. According to him it freed you, allowed you to meet the world again square on, like how you got here, he said. And the act of it, the giving away of what everyone else regarded as important, returned you to the humility you were born in.
So many great quotes, so much wisdom in all of books.
July 2, 2026
I've read a number or Richard Wagamese's books and I just can't get enough of him. I love the way he writes and the stories that he tells.
Here is a sample from Dream Wheels:
The two men looked at each other. A quiet ran between them. It was a calmness defined in the bonds formed in the dust and dirt and struggle of the cowboy life. Trust. They wouldn’t have called it that. The world gives outsized names to simple things and, for Joe Willie and Lionel, trust was too big a loop to throw over the horns of what they felt. It was an elbows-on-the-fence-rail kind of thing, all leaned back and casual, existing without definition or borders, a line of certainty that ran from the edges of what they did to the uncertainty of the risks they took.
It doesn't matter to me that Dream Wheels was a bit predictable, or that it took forever to build the foundation of the story shifting between at least half a dozen people, because in the end the writing is so beautiful and cuts to the very core of being.
Dream wheels is a truck, dream wheels is the story that connects a people to their past. Dream Wheels connects a 17 year old African American who served time with a busted up Indigenous cowboy. It is a book about connections and healing, and connections to heal.
Here is a sample from Dream Wheels:
The two men looked at each other. A quiet ran between them. It was a calmness defined in the bonds formed in the dust and dirt and struggle of the cowboy life. Trust. They wouldn’t have called it that. The world gives outsized names to simple things and, for Joe Willie and Lionel, trust was too big a loop to throw over the horns of what they felt. It was an elbows-on-the-fence-rail kind of thing, all leaned back and casual, existing without definition or borders, a line of certainty that ran from the edges of what they did to the uncertainty of the risks they took.
It doesn't matter to me that Dream Wheels was a bit predictable, or that it took forever to build the foundation of the story shifting between at least half a dozen people, because in the end the writing is so beautiful and cuts to the very core of being.
Dream wheels is a truck, dream wheels is the story that connects a people to their past. Dream Wheels connects a 17 year old African American who served time with a busted up Indigenous cowboy. It is a book about connections and healing, and connections to heal.
January 20, 2023
Though I have read and enjoyed some of Wagamese's other work in the past, I think from here on out, I'm going to say he's just not for me.
Wagamese wrote books about people in difficult circumstances overcoming tough odds, healing themselves, and ending up happy. I think he wanted to write 'feel good' books, but also write about people who struggle. I also feel like he ladles out emotional beats with a snow shovel, rather than, say, a dessert spoon. So his books usually feel predictable to me, and a tiny bit saccharine.
HOWEVER. I think I am definitely in the minority on this. Wagamese is extremely thoughtful about the characters he creates, and even the down trodden that could easily become caricatures have dignity and well constructed motivations. He's empathetic without being too sympathetic, and I imagine that, in life, he was the kind of person who could see the good in almost anyone, and would never write a person off for what others perceived as bad choices. He's also not afraid to give his books real stakes.
But because he wants the best for people, you can sort of see how things will play out. I think for some readers, being taken on a journey of redemption and personal growth with Wagamese is probably intensely satisfying. But I get frustrated because I find it all signposted too clearly, and, in the end, find the stakes meaningless, because I know there's going to be a happy ending. Plus, he always tells me how people are thinking and feeling explicitly, when I'd sometimes like a little more subtlety.
So in this book we have a victim of domestic violence, a kid who makes some bad choices and ends up incarcerated, and a rodeo champ who goes from the top of his game to rock bottom. Plus, there's a ranch with horses, bulls and a beat up old truck. There's a lot of landscape here, and Wagamese absolutely does it justice. I also appreciate that Wagamese isn't afraid to let his male characters have a lot of feelings, and never shames or judges them for taking the time to work through and process them.
If you like the kind of books where characters go through trials and tribulations, but eventually find their way out to a warm and fuzzy status, and that will not ask much of you as read, you should definitely pick this up.
Wagamese wrote books about people in difficult circumstances overcoming tough odds, healing themselves, and ending up happy. I think he wanted to write 'feel good' books, but also write about people who struggle. I also feel like he ladles out emotional beats with a snow shovel, rather than, say, a dessert spoon. So his books usually feel predictable to me, and a tiny bit saccharine.
HOWEVER. I think I am definitely in the minority on this. Wagamese is extremely thoughtful about the characters he creates, and even the down trodden that could easily become caricatures have dignity and well constructed motivations. He's empathetic without being too sympathetic, and I imagine that, in life, he was the kind of person who could see the good in almost anyone, and would never write a person off for what others perceived as bad choices. He's also not afraid to give his books real stakes.
But because he wants the best for people, you can sort of see how things will play out. I think for some readers, being taken on a journey of redemption and personal growth with Wagamese is probably intensely satisfying. But I get frustrated because I find it all signposted too clearly, and, in the end, find the stakes meaningless, because I know there's going to be a happy ending. Plus, he always tells me how people are thinking and feeling explicitly, when I'd sometimes like a little more subtlety.
So in this book we have a victim of domestic violence, a kid who makes some bad choices and ends up incarcerated, and a rodeo champ who goes from the top of his game to rock bottom. Plus, there's a ranch with horses, bulls and a beat up old truck. There's a lot of landscape here, and Wagamese absolutely does it justice. I also appreciate that Wagamese isn't afraid to let his male characters have a lot of feelings, and never shames or judges them for taking the time to work through and process them.
If you like the kind of books where characters go through trials and tribulations, but eventually find their way out to a warm and fuzzy status, and that will not ask much of you as read, you should definitely pick this up.
February 14, 2017
Oh how I loved this book! Oh how I hated this book!
Using the analogy of sitting on the back porch downing a bottle of beer after mowing the lawn I wanted this to be a quick read and started reading the book at my typical fast pace. After fifty pages wondering what I had read and how it connected I started over again. This was a necessity because the second time I started reading I took the attitude of sitting down after dinner in front of the fire drinking a glass of port. (All that was missing was the cigar- but seeing as how I'm female this is forgivable). When I slowed down and absorbed and reflected back on what I had read and was reading I was taken on a wonderful slow story which refused to be hastened. One of the reasons I love Richard Wagamese's writing. Don't give up try try again and you will be richly rewarded with a wonderful story that you certainly will not soon forget.
Using the analogy of sitting on the back porch downing a bottle of beer after mowing the lawn I wanted this to be a quick read and started reading the book at my typical fast pace. After fifty pages wondering what I had read and how it connected I started over again. This was a necessity because the second time I started reading I took the attitude of sitting down after dinner in front of the fire drinking a glass of port. (All that was missing was the cigar- but seeing as how I'm female this is forgivable). When I slowed down and absorbed and reflected back on what I had read and was reading I was taken on a wonderful slow story which refused to be hastened. One of the reasons I love Richard Wagamese's writing. Don't give up try try again and you will be richly rewarded with a wonderful story that you certainly will not soon forget.
March 1, 2017
This book was beautiful, yet very repetitive. Wagamese has a way with words and beautiful prose but if you read it once, you've read it twenty times.
I found that I learned a lot about rodeo and Wagamese describes the courage and determination it takes to overcome fear and heartache very well. I am however very far removed from the world of rodeo and I still don't see the thrill in it. However I appreciate the lifestyle after reading this book. Even if it's only sightly.
I found that I learned a lot about rodeo and Wagamese describes the courage and determination it takes to overcome fear and heartache very well. I am however very far removed from the world of rodeo and I still don't see the thrill in it. However I appreciate the lifestyle after reading this book. Even if it's only sightly.
September 20, 2015
Dream Wheels is a beautiful novel, and a delicious piece of literature. I think the most telling compliment that I can give is that there isn't a single description of food or clothing in the entire book. The existence of a hat or cup of coffee might be noted, but there is just too much story to leave room for anything else.
February 23, 2018
I have read several of Richard Wagamese’s books and this one ranks right up there with his later novels. He has a real gift of getting to the heart of our humanity and what makes us tick.
July 25, 2021
Lotta grit, lotta gumption
April 26, 2024
This is the best cowboy book I’ve read, and another beautiful book by Wagamese that highlights the cultural and social struggles and triumphs of Indigenous life.
Dream Wheels opens with two alternating stories, a broken bull rider and a broken teenager. Alternating between each we get a great sense of who they are, and the stem of their great pain and eventually the two stories become one and I wasn’t prepared for how emotional and healing this convergence would be. Wagamese has a knack for getting inside the head of these characters and allows us to see them from all angles, the good, the bad and the ugly.
One thing that always stands out in his stories is the landscapes, the scenery is vivid, I am always immersed not only with the characters but the places they embody. Wagamese can make even the most resistant of empaths emotionally invested, the stories are intimate and raw.
Dream Wheels opens with two alternating stories, a broken bull rider and a broken teenager. Alternating between each we get a great sense of who they are, and the stem of their great pain and eventually the two stories become one and I wasn’t prepared for how emotional and healing this convergence would be. Wagamese has a knack for getting inside the head of these characters and allows us to see them from all angles, the good, the bad and the ugly.
One thing that always stands out in his stories is the landscapes, the scenery is vivid, I am always immersed not only with the characters but the places they embody. Wagamese can make even the most resistant of empaths emotionally invested, the stories are intimate and raw.
August 29, 2018
My first impression of this book was that I was not going to like it very much. The opening scene is of a rodeo and since I have no interest and indeed some dislike of this kind of spectacle I was somewhat put off. However I am very glad I persevered. I think it is a tribute to this writer's skill that by the end of the book, my feelings about rodeo changed and I appreciated the work and skill that goes into making a rodeo rider.
Part of the book takes place in the city where a teenager gets involved in crime and does 2 years in prison. One of the prison guards feels he can be saved and sends him and his mother to live on a ranch where they both become involved with the horses and with the family running the ranch. The ranch owners are native Americans and much of their culture is described which I think adds greatly to the story.
Part of the book takes place in the city where a teenager gets involved in crime and does 2 years in prison. One of the prison guards feels he can be saved and sends him and his mother to live on a ranch where they both become involved with the horses and with the family running the ranch. The ranch owners are native Americans and much of their culture is described which I think adds greatly to the story.
May 27, 2018
I smiled when I read your review Sarah. I've had Dream Wheels on my book shelf for ages, and at one time even had it in a container to donate/unŕead, in an attempt to make room for all the other books stuffing my shelves with more recent additions (I think all book lovers get the picture).
I skimmed through a few reviews and decided to hold it back, to place it on the top of the pile!
I'm so glad I did!
In the first few pages it was a whole new world for me. Cowboys, rodeos, Native Indians and all the associated experiences I knew nothing about. But all senses of tragedy, loss, abuse, and hopelessness soon turned around.
A third of the way into the "wild ride" of stories, the focus has switched to challenge the afflicted to become survivors. Wow.
Am loving this book!!
I skimmed through a few reviews and decided to hold it back, to place it on the top of the pile!
I'm so glad I did!
In the first few pages it was a whole new world for me. Cowboys, rodeos, Native Indians and all the associated experiences I knew nothing about. But all senses of tragedy, loss, abuse, and hopelessness soon turned around.
A third of the way into the "wild ride" of stories, the focus has switched to challenge the afflicted to become survivors. Wow.
Am loving this book!!
December 21, 2011
I first came across this book as book fair coordinator at a Canadian Authors Association conference in Ottawa, where it had received the CAA Fiction award. Just reading the blurb on the back cover, the first two lines, was enough to make me want to read the rest of the book.
"The great bull was true to his name. He detonated."
I found the writing compelling, the characters well-drawn, and in places rather poetic in its phrasing. I enjoyed the descriptions of life on the rodeo circuit, the conflicts of the main characters, and the "Dream Wheel" idea is fascinating as well.
Five star read for me. And I never read "western novels".
"The great bull was true to his name. He detonated."
I found the writing compelling, the characters well-drawn, and in places rather poetic in its phrasing. I enjoyed the descriptions of life on the rodeo circuit, the conflicts of the main characters, and the "Dream Wheel" idea is fascinating as well.
Five star read for me. And I never read "western novels".
February 16, 2017
This is more a 3.5 rating. As always Wagamese's prose leave you breathless. The depth of his characters is always amazing. I just found the story a bit too slow and a bit repetitive. Perhaps I wouldn't have found it as slow if it hadn't been about rodeo, which I really don't care to know a lot about. I just don't get it. Not my favourite book of his but it is still worth the read for its in depth look of human nature and our souls.
January 22, 2009
Richard Wagamese is wonderful descriptive writer.
I read a description of Richard Wagamese's writing as "lyrical". I agree. Richard Wagamese is a Canadian First Nations Writer and periodically writes columns for the Calgary Herald newpaper.
It took a bit to get into the book, but I was definitely rewarded. Great book.
I read a description of Richard Wagamese's writing as "lyrical". I agree. Richard Wagamese is a Canadian First Nations Writer and periodically writes columns for the Calgary Herald newpaper.
It took a bit to get into the book, but I was definitely rewarded. Great book.
May 30, 2011
a little overwrought but a great vision and amazing descriptions of rodeo and the power of landscape. characters a bit too caricature... they sometimes seem more symbolic than real. very poetic and a little spiritual. in a good way.
December 7, 2016
This was a very sensory book, lots of sights sounds and smells. It is a very spiritual to. A lot of First Nation philosophy in this story of a son and mother finding a new path in life thanks to life on a ranch.
January 26, 2012
Every single time I read a book by Richard Wagamese I savor both the story he spins and the craftsmanship of the telling. He is a gifted writer!
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